ROCHESTER — The Police Commission Thursday morning officially adopted additional language in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the commission and the City Council, as part of an agreement that allowed police command staff to get their merit-based raises late last week.

While the three police commissioners had already signed the document before their meeting on Thursday, the official vote to accept the amended MOU took place during Thursday’s public session.

The new MOU contains an addition stating the Police Commission will submit requests for merit-based raises for non-union police members while the city budget is being developed — at least 10 days before the city manager hands over the proposed budget to the City Council for revision and approval.

Neither the city manager nor the council will have authority to change the budget line for the police command staff wage increases, but the change will allow the council to prepare better for the budget, knowing how much money will be dedicated to the wage increases for those staff.

The change to the MOU came after a dispute between the council and the Police Commission over how much funding to dedicate this year for wage increases for about eight non-union police command staff.

Last spring, as the budget for this fiscal year was being prepared, the City Council appropriated about $12,000 for wage increases for those staff. The Police Commission, after the budget has already been adopted, voted to dedicate about $18,000 toward those raises. Over the subsequent months, command staff did not see any raises, because the council did not appropriate additional funds into the budget, and Police Commission members expressed that per City Charter, it’s their duty to set wages for non-union police staff, not the council’s.

After wage claims were made by police command staff, an agreement was made with the city — the claims against the city were dropped, on condition that the staff get awarded raises as set by the Police Commission, and the MOU change is made so the problem doesn’t arise in subsequent years.

The council approved the MOU change on Tuesday, and the Police Commission unanimously voted to accept the MOU change on Thursday.

Police Commission Chairman James McManus said with the change in the MOU, the commission will now have to evaluate command staff performances earlier in the year, around November. That way, the merit-based raises can be submitted to the city manager on a timely basis, as dictated by the MOU.